What Is The Failure Of Khrushchev

On March 5th 1953, Joseph Stalin died of a stroke, causing the Communist Party to become politically crippled. The Soviet government had to re-establish the party before mass panic arose within the people, which stalled the Soviet government from serious action until 1955 (Central Intelligence Agency). Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the Soviets in 1953, right after Stalin’s death. In 1956 though, Khrushchev gave a six hour speech to the 20th congress of the Communist Party that denounced Stalin as a good commander of a country. He reprimanded the now deceased Stalin and his political choices, showing that someone could step in and fix Stalin’s “accidents” or reign better than he did. That someone who could fix their country was
The Soviets secret arrangement was found out one month after construction of the sites had started, allowing president John F. Kennedy to take action. Kennedy tried to deter the Soviets from the building of nuclear weapon on Cuba by explaining how the weapons were more offensive than defensive. Khrushchev, realizing the direness of the situation, continued to build in the name of defensive, completely disregarding President Kennedy’s concerns. Kennedy realizing the situation could escalate at any moment navally quarantined the whole of Cuba. The same day of the quarantine, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev declaring the the United States would not sit idly by while the Soviets brought offensive weapons into Cuba, and he commanded the weapons be returned to Russia. Khrushchev responded within the week, revealing he had no intention of stopping the building of the weapon sites. Kennedy, wanting to make his position absolute clear, broadcasted himself on the television stating that, “The 1930's taught [America] a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to
Khrushchev retired in 1964 and the following leaders of the Union were elected almost every other year. For almost twenty years the Union was without a true leader, but in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev stepped up to the role of Soviet leader (“List of Leaders”). Gorbachev was the death of the Union, lifting the iron curtain that had been held over Russia’s spheres of influence for many years. From the beginning of his reign, he retracted troops from nations and allowed them to be declared free and non-communist. Gorbachev officially killed the Union in 1991, in which he said, “Harsh necessity requires actions to preserve the state and secure its unity. Here we should not have any illusions as far as the intentions or the abilities of the central Government are concerned” (Gorbachev 5). Gorbachev simply believed that Russia was going down the wrong path politically. He realized that if the government continued on this path it would split into many different sections consisting of many different country ideologies. The Soviet Union would split at its seams, sectioning itself into many different areas potentially shriveling the Union in its wake. Gorbachev made a dire compromise to do what he thought right for his country, allowing the Cold War to end silently with the death of the Soviet